The problem with the Chatterbox in general is that it is hooked upon the wrong protocol, so there is significant overhead involved in passing around those messages, even with FullPage Chat. There's the overhead of storing those messages in a database table and all that http request/response hoops. IRC servers are optimized for passing around chat messages, perlmonks is not. That's why the Chatterbox is restricted and Anonymous Monk is not allowed to speak. Chatty bots are, in a way, also Anonymous Monks, even if they were invented and are driven by a member.

Indeed, I think the chatterbox could be replaced by a link to an irc2http hub and the perlmonks site could just dish out the external link, and have its talkbox speak to a #perlmonks irc channel via that external hub - the reverse of ambrus' cbstream. Of course, tying an IRC channel to perlmonks authentication is an interesting challenge...

The chatterbox is - in terms of perlmonks content - an extension to SoPW, and it is, in those terms, already too IRCy. But then it is also a place for us monks to talk to each other within the confines of the Monastery. Chatty bots have no place there, imho.